The Corvette stole the show, but there was plenty more to see at the 2013 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Check back here as we add more reveals throughout the show.

Chevrolet Corvette Stingray

Chevrolet Corvette Stingray

Easily the most anticipated debut of the 2013 Detroit Auto Show is the seventh-generation Chevrolet Corvette. It looks like the years of press leaks and speculation were worth the wait: The new 'Vette should be the best one yet, a rolling paragon of American patriotism that sets new sports car standards for it price range.

With pricing close to current base Corvette, the new car should have a 0-to-60 mph time of less than four seconds, skidpad grip greater than 1 g, and braking performance on par with the outgoing Z06 model. Even better is that the Corvette finally has an interior that's as world-class as it's performance.

The phrase "all-new" gets thrown around a lot in the automotive business, but on the Corvette it's appropriate—only two parts carry over from the old car. The new frame, built in-house, is aluminum, saving 99 pounds over the outgoing hydroformed steel while improving torsional stiffness by 57 percent. A carbon fiber hood and roof panel provide more weight savings, although overall curb weight will be up slightly of the sixth-gen 'Vette because of improved creature comforts, tougher crash-test standards, and fuel-saving technology, all of which pack on the pounds.

Chevrolet Corvette Stingray (Cont.)

Chevrolet Corvette Stingray (Cont.)

Under the hood, of course, is a V-8—the new LT1 that we first saw back in October. The 6.2-liter comes with direct injection, variable valve timing, and a V-4 cylinder deactivation mode. Output is 450 hp and 450 lb-ft, bumps of 14 hp and 12 lb-ft over the C6, and Chevy promises to beat the current Corvette's 26 mpg EPA highway rating. The engine is paired to a either a new 7-speed manual transmission or the old 6-speed automatic, and the manual now has an automatic rev-matching feature.

"The interior is the single most upgraded area of the car," chief engineer Tadge Juechter tells PM. Cheap plastic has been banished from the cabin. There are two available seats, GT and Competition Sport versions, both of which use a new magnesium frame.

In designing the interior, the Corvette team looked at how the car is used. The armrest has soft padding, for example, but the trim along the center bolster where drivers brace their leg during hard driving is firmer. Also in the interest of functionality, Chevy's engineers put in actual buttons for the radio and climate control—no capacitive touch here, folks. The high-resolution instrument cluster follows that theme as well, with a display that changes the information displayed based on the selected driving mode (Weather, Eco, Tour, Sport, or Track). A rotary knob on the center tunnel switches between the driving modes by tweaking the throttle map, electric power steering, active exhaust, and optional electronic limited-slip differential and magnetoheological dampers.